Atlas Shrugged is Long, and Ayn Rand’s Belief in Radical Honesty
I have been reading Atlas Shrugged for months and I am only on page 810 out of 1084. And I even really like the book - it has had a big impact on my philosophy of life.
I guess I just kind of feel like I get the point already and I’m trying to finish the book just to finish it.
The book isn’t really about the story - it’s more about the ideas within the story. And I don’t think any new ideas will come out in the last 200 pages.
After reading the article about Radical Honesty, I have been noticing that Ayn Rand seems to be a believer in it.
For example, with the relationship between Francisco, Dagny Taggert and John Galt - they all spoke and acted exactly as they felt, regardless of their relationships to each other, etc… “Nobody stays here by faking reality in any manner whatever.”
Also, this quote from Rearden to Dagny reveals Rand’s belief in radical honesty:
“People think that a liar gains a victory over his victim. What I’ve learned is that a lie is an act of self-abdication, because one surrenders one’s reality to the person to whom one lies, making that person one’s master, condemning oneself from then on to faking the sort of reality that person’s view requires to be faked… The man who lies to the world, is the world’s slave from then on.”
